Simultaneous projects to maximize learning

He [Tommy Thompson] decided to extend the research projects Glower had assigned him during the tutorials [in college] and pursue at all times seven to fourteen projects, idea sparks that through research he could fan to see if they caught fire. Some would be long term, thirty years perhaps; others he might conclude in two weeks. Some required his attention for a day each week, while he spent no more than four hours a month on others. As he completed one project, he would take on another, always keeping the number between seen and fourteen, and he resolved that no matter what he was doing where he was working, how much time he had to spend on other things, he would keep these projects alive to broaden his understanding of science, marketing, technology, business, human behavior, all of the disciplines that come together to make an idea work.

Gary Kinder, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea (New York: Grove Press, 1998), Kindle loc. 1530.